Ciem: Inferno: The Grand Tour
Ciem: Inferno: The Grand Tour is a tourism event that took place between July 29th and August 1st of 2019, to do geographic research on the cities of Evansville and Boonville for The Gerosha Chronicles. Notable quotes "Most folks around here pretty much keep to themselves. This is a small town where everyone knows what everyone else is up to. Outsiders wanting to make a big superhero epic set here, and coming in touring and asking questions of locals to make that story better? Ain't nobody ever does that. Not here in Boonville. You're probably the first that's ever done so." - staff of Maple Grove Cemetery Stories affected The stories most affected by this tour are the following: * The Battle for Gerosha (understanding pre-Gerosha Boonville geography, as it would have affected Stan and Shalia Flippo's lives and legacy) * Of Emeralds and Sapphires (knowing more about where Donte was born and raised) * Ciem: Inferno (retracing the steps of Candi's early life, and in the Inferno timeline) * Ciem: Caldera (knowing which locations would be of interest to Quoll) * Sodality: Instigation (knowing what's left of the town after Affadidah's ravaged it, as Candi and her allies begin their exodus) * The Gerosha Chronicles: Centipede + 49 (knowing what's left for Candi to reclaim from Affadidah's dying regime) * Ciem Tomorrow (knowing what gets rebuilt after Affadidah is gone) Itinerary Monday, July 29th The original plan was to go to bed at 8:30 PM EDT, after a 5-hour work day plus a church service. The drive would then be made beginning at 3:00 AM EDT, leaving the Grand Ledge House and driving straight through the night to Evansville. Road construction rendered it not so easy to do that in the 6 hours and 40 minutes or so that Google Maps predicted. Upon being rudely awakened by his sister Julia at 10:15, the Dozerfleet founder elected to begin the journey at 10:30 PM EDT on July 29th regardless of the original schedule. He stopped at Taco Bell of Grand Ledge first, to gain the energy needed for the drive by ordering a chunky chicken chalupa and a steak Grilled Stuffed Burrito. He then headed through downtown Grand Ledge to reach Onramp 86. He entered I-96 eastbound from the 86 onramp, then took I-96 eastbound to I-69 southbound. The journey continued from there until a brief stop at the Indiana Rest Stop Southbound near Pleasant Lake and Steuben Township. This spot was reached just after midnight. Tuesday, July 30th The original itinerary called for stopping at the south side of Ft. Wayne somewhere. Instead, the next rest stop was at the Southbound Pipe Creek Rest Area, located to the south of Gas City and north of Gaston. The journey continued until some back roads were necessary to find a new way to reach I-69 at the point where it resumes. From there, the journey continued along I-69 until reaching the Scotland exit. Feeling tired, the Dozerfleet founder decided to find somewhere to rest for about an hour before resuming the journey. With the middle two seats removed from his van and some extra pillows, the middle seat region had been repurposed as a bike storage center. The back seats had been converted to a makeshift "truck bed." The journey to find a place to park and rest seemed to prove futile, however. Alas, a spot was located in a small town called Raglesville. The parking lot of the Frady United Methodist Church permitted a brief stay for rest and recuperation. Around 8:30, a mostly-rested Dozerfleet founder resumed the journey southward. There was a brief stop at a gas station in Odon, and then it was back to I-69. The very next stop was in downtown Evansville. After finding a parking space, the Dozerfleet founder used the borrowed bicycle to tour the downtown area. Most locations relevant to near the beginning of Inferno were captured - including the exterior of the Old National Events Plaza as well as several photos near or inside the Court and Administration Building. The Evansville Public Central Library was also toured - but the tour was made short due to a need to move on. The library's soap dispensers needed replacing. In the mean time, the men's room got by with using cheap Member's Mark brand hand sanitizer in the place of soap. No one was amused. The Old National Plaza's interior was off limits to photography; both because the camera had a microphone in it and because they wouldn't allow anyone in with a backpack. There were also insufficient bike parking racks near the plaza. Just enough of the Court and Administration Building was accessible to provide a few clues as to what Candi would have possibly seen upon her first intake after her arrest. The location of her battle with Dayton Bronson of the Screwworm Network was recorded in detail. Next, the desire to find and capture Amirah's house was thwarted by a malfunctioning Google Maps. Yet, a neighborhood along a different part of Cedar Street near Ziedler's proved adequate as Amirah's old neighborhood. The old McArthur house was relatively easy to find. Finally, the tour of Evansville wrapped up with a (futile) attempt to capture a photo of the exterior of the Vanderburgh County Sheriff's Department building. A malfunctioning Google - plus road traffic and construction - made this too dangerous to keep attempting. Another stop was made, at the Mack's station not far from where the Vanderburgh County Sheriff photo gathering session was canceled. From there, it was a matter of using back roads to worm one's way to Highway 62. This and other routes suggested by Google led straight to 3rd Street on the north side of Boonville. Arriving around 2:30 PM CDT, the Dozerfleet founder checked in to Motel Manor room 7. A few hours of trip recovery time later, and it was off to shooting various locations around town. Most emphasized shoots that day included the Posey's parking lot and the neighborhoods related to Candi and Danny parting ways to deal with the Pyro Panthers differently. Shots of the downtown area were included, however. In the end, the day concluded with almost all possible Evansville locations captured and just a handful of Boonville ones likewise. Around 9:00 PM CDT, just a half hour shy of 24 hours from when the journey began, the first day of photo gathering was called a day. Most interested in Ciem: Inferno was the local Posey's cashier Lindsay. Wednesday, July 31st Upon waking up inside room 7 of Motel Manor, the Dozerfleet founder proceeded to bike into town. The first location photographed was the exterior of 1205 N. 1st St., though no interior shots were taken. Next, the corner of 1st and North was photographed at length, per Ciem's first battle with Lava Tigre. After a brief stop at the Old Boonville Cemetery (one of the two locations considered for Gerosha Cemetery,) it was off to Boonville High School. The high school staff were incredibly flattered at the prospect of their school featuring in such an ambitious project. However, they couldn't allow internal photography due to the floors being waxed. They did, however, supply a map of the interior - so that character movements would make sense. The exterior - primarily the football field - were documented instead. It was determined that the scene in Sodality of Candi and Donte beneath the bleachers was very much possible. The original Sims 3 render wasn't modeled after the bleachers of Boonville High, but the bleachers of Michigan Lutheran Seminary. It was originally assumed Donte would have to fly Candi home. Turns out, they would have been able to sneak away and walk back to Erin's house easily - and draw a lot less attention. The Chuckles Gas Station proved a fairly easy next location, with a confused yet flattered and cooperative staff. Two buildings confirmed to be involved in the sequence of Candi chasing some of Morvel's goons early on in the story are the Phillips Law, PC building and Goodwill. Next, the Boonville Sav-U-Mor IGA was photographed. This was followed by the exterior of Boonville City Hall. They didn't allow pictures inside the building, however. The exterior of the Boonville Police Department was also photographed, but not the interior. According to an officer on duty, the Boonville Fire Department front exterior and a few shots of the truck garage were okay to photograph - provided no personnel or anything that could compromise them were exposed in shots. Next, the Quality Liquor of 435 S. 3rd St. was photographed - which is where the construction site is located in-story where Purge-Flare kills Lava Tigre. Some surprises near there included a nearly-burned-down house not far from the fire department - perfect reference for the Pyro Panthers' rage. St. Vincent's Warrick Hospital didn't allow any photography, citing patient privacy. This ended the bike-accessible portion of the tour - not only due to exhaustion; but also due to sunburn. The remaining areas would have to be hit up via driving to them. The Long John Silver's on Locust was of interest - particularly, the area behind the store, where the Purge-Flare's van is parked in-story after he outruns the Warrick County police that mistake him for Extirpon. A nearby Auto Zone is likely one place he would've raided for parts to repair his van. Highway 62 near Squaw Creek Road was photographed as the location of the first battle between Ciem and Drop-In. Highway 61 became the setting for the Purge-Flare's run, complete with video clips. Boonville Middle School was right along Highway 61 also. However, no internal photography was allowed. Maple Grove Cemetery was visited next. However, the staff didn't allow pictures to be taken. They said that publicity made them uneasy. City Lake No. 1 Park, and the building near 322 Moore Street's exterior, had their pictures taken next to define both where the force field generator would be stored and where Miriam would have to battle several Hebbleskins in order to find and disable the generator. She is able in-story to deduce its location after Chris suggests that something like it "might have to be nuclear" to have that kind of power, and would need a lot of water to cool itself down. She discovers by way of a Geiger counter that Chris lends her that the generator is leaking about 0.2 mSV per second - leading to any guard watching it for a whole day absorbing a dose of about 12 grays minimum. She learns one Hebbleskin guard died watching the generator room, and battles the second into submission and interrogation right before he also dies of radiation poisoning. After Miriam's arrest in December of 2015, she informs authorities that she was the one who left the anonymous tip about the radiation. The entire park office building is torn down and replaced, due to the wood being deemed too radioactive to be safe for use in the park. One of Miriam's biggest struggles, therefore, was getting close enough to the grid to disable it while still trying to avoid absorbing too many grays of radiation herself. Since Miriam is initially taken to the Warrick County Jail before she is exposed as Sniperbadger and forced to transfer to Texas; a shot of the exterior of the Warrick County Jail was desired. Only one semi-good shot was possible, however. The First Christian Church is relatively where Candi and her sisters would've attended church right up until the Hebbleskins burn it down in-universe. It had very Sodality quasi-Lutheran views in-universe; though the actual church is a Restorationist theology on par with Pentecostalism. It markets itself as "non-denominational," however. Due to Erin being gone a lot and the girls not having their own car, Candi and her sisters would have only been able to attend church when Imaki was in town to take them to Trinity Lutheran Church in Evansville along IN-62. Therefore, they would have been able to attend the LCMS church very sparingly - making them weaker against the temptations at Gerosha High. Around this time in the tour, the camera's battery started getting very weak. The next few shots were hurried through before it died completely. The exterior of the house at 11 W. Tennyson Rd. was shot. In real life, this house is still very much occupied. It has a "no trespassing" sign near the front door, indicating a very strong emphasis on insecurity over the prospect of intruders due to the poor condition the house is in. In-universe, this house is abandoned. Candi and Danny were among some other youths that were doing volunteer work in July of 2015 near this area. They were abandoned by the crew, and made their way to this abandoned property. Once inside, they gave in to temptation, having sex for the first of many times before their tragic breakup in November of that year. It was here that Danny began unwittingly leading Candi down a very dangerous path. One she only agreed to take; because he made her feel a sense of healing over what Don did to her in 2011 - a healing she was denied when she was denied counseling after the rape. Even though Candi was still only 15 during her and Danny's first time, no one found out about this or several other encounters they had before her 16th birthday. No charges were ever filed. Even then, the couple may have been covered under Romeo and Juliet statutes. The exterior of 1344 Lovers Lane was covered next, given its logical proximity. This is Imaki Izuki’s home in Gerosha, and Candi's second home when not living at Erin's. The house on 247 State Rd. 261 was shot, but no good angles of the house were possible. Only one shot could be made of the house before the camera battery died, and that was a shot with a tree blocking view of it. The house itself was of little consequence, however. What mattered was the lot. The Triangulum would exist here in the Gerosha universe, rather than the house as it appears. At the time the shot was taken, the house was being sold by its owner. With the camera battery dead, photography of Boonville necessarily ceased. The Dozerfleet founder returned to Room 7 of Motel Manor to recharge it. Even then, it was getting too late in the day to get many good shots of anything. The exterior of Motel Manor and of the WBNL radio station's exterior were shot with the camera, before it was packed. Interior shots of room 7, to use as a reference for Danny and Roger's room, were shot with Dozerfleet Mobile's phone camera rather than the proper camera. Everything was then packed up and prepared for the journey home. A quick trip to Wal-Mart was required. It was revealed that the Dozerfleet founder's favorite pair of sunglasses was "completely fried" after nearly ten years in service. It offered no UV protection for the wearer's eyes anymore, and was "almost worthless." This prompted a new pair of sunglasses to be purchased that would offer better UV protection. Also, the journey resulted in a mild sunburn to face, neck, forearms, and eyelids. The final evening in Boonville was spent beginning the episode synopsis for "Mean Girls," an episode of the Netflix series Girls Incarcerated, as the Dozerfleet founder had become the admin for that show's wiki on Fandom. When he got too tired to continue, it was lights out around midnight. Thursday, August 1st Some more work was done on the wiki after working up at 8:35 or so AM, CDT. Even though checkout was supposed to be around 11:00 AM CDT, the Dozerfleet founder convinced the staff at Motel Manor to let him check out half an hour early. Due to the time change that would occur upon hitting northern parts of I-69, this small half-hour head start would barely even matter. It would be 11:30 AM EDT for all intents and purposes. There was a quick stop at the Arby's of Boonville for lunch, and then it was off to IN-62 and I-69. The first several hours up were fairly uneventful, save for some traffic slow-downs due to construction. However, a major traffic jam occurred in Martinsville, right where I-69 gave way to IN-37. Frustrated, the ride got off of IN-37 right at the intersection with Ohio St. There was a quick stop at the Kroger of Martinsville for some sushi, and then it was back to the road. IN-37 was far too blocked to be practical, so the backroads to IN-39 mixed with IN-67 became the preferred route. From there, IN-67 was taken as the means to get onto I-465 West. It gave way finally to I-465 North, and eventually to the renewed I-69. There was a brief stop at the northbound Pine Creek Rest area, and then another stop for refueling at the Speedway of Angola. From there, it was a straight shot back to the I-69 exit 70 toward Lansing. From about 11:00 AM CDT to 9:00 PM EDT, it was an exhausting nine-hour journey home. However, the Dozerfleet founder was unable to go straight home. Due to some changes at Adobe, the new Genuine Software tracker spiders had declared that his copy of the Creative Suite 6 purchased from Codes-n-Boxes in 2018 was "suddenly" no longer deemed to be "genuine" software. The laptop wasn't scanned by the spiders, since Adobe doesn't run on that laptop while logged in to the web. However, a scan to the desktop gave the desktop one month left to still use CS6 before it would be permanently disabled. Options were limited: pay $600 a year to upgrade to a full Creative Cloud subscription, or a one-time fee of about $100 to install Photoshop Elements 2019. This led to the trip cost totaling over $600, when it was initially going to reach just $500 solid at worst. The Dozerfleet founder drove to Best Buy, and purchased a retail copy of Photoshop Elements. Come September of 2019, all desktop Photoshop work would have to be done using this much-scaled down version of Photoshop. When that fails, Photopea would be available. SVG-edit was bookmarked, along with a download of Inkscape, to cover the needs to making vector images in the future. Without an Illustrator Elements software package, the loss of CS6 on the desktop meant much-reduced chance of getting to use Illustrator ever again. Premiere would also be disabled. Wishing to save some time and money before getting Premiere Elements, OpenShot Editor was opted for as a free, open source alternative. Finally, home ground was touched at the Grand Ledge House around 9:45 PM EDT - a whole 45 minutes shy of 72 hours from when the trip began. Targeted cities The two cities primarily targeted were Evansville and Boonville, though other nearby cities would have been included if they'd proven relevant somehow. Madison was removed from the list due to time and budget constraints (see below.) Landmarks Successfully photographed * The exterior of Old National Events Plaza * The City and County Administration Building (sans courtroom of Vanderburgh Juvenile Court) * The Teamsters Local 215 sign * 4824 Earl Ave. facade, Betty McArthur's house in-universe. * Amirah Rose's old neighborhood * Highway 62 near Squaw Creek Road, location of battle between Ciem and Drop-In * Highway 61, setting of the Purge-Flare's run, complete with videos * Exterior of the Locust St. Long John Silver's ** The area behind Long John Silver's, where the Purge-Flare's van is parked * 11 W. Tennyson Rd., the house where Candi and Danny sleep together for the first time * The exterior of 1344 Lovers Lane, Imaki Izuki’s home in Gerosha * The general location of 247 State Rd. 261, where the Triangulum is located in-universe * Motel Manor ** Room 7, where Roger and Danny stayed * Exterior of the WBNL radio station * The corner of 1st St. and North Ave., where Ciem first battles Lava Tigre * Exterior and parking lot of the Quality Liquor store at 435 S. 3rd St., location of the construction site in Inferno. * Exterior of the Warrick County Jail, where Miriam is taken at the end of Inferno after revealing she was the one who helped the Purge-Flare escape Gerosha as part of a deal. * Exterior of Boonville Middle School, where the Flippos attended in 6th grade * Exterior and the football field of Boonville High School * The Chuckles Gas Station of 1st and Main, where Candi has to save some classmates from Morvel's men ** Phillips Law building and Goodwill area, related to the incident * Exterior of 1205 N. 1st St., Erin Flippo’s house in-universe * Posey's Market, the parking lot in particular, location of Candi's arrest * City Lake No. 1 Park, where the force field generator around the town is hidden. ** The building near 322 Moore St., with the generator inside it. * Exterior of Boonville City Hall * Exterior of the Boonville Police Department * Front exterior and a few shots of the truck garage of the Boonville Fire Department * Exterior of First Christian Church * Boonville Sav-U-Mor IGA, where Roger Loffin works in-universe Unsuccessful photo jobs * 510 E. Walnut St.: Due to alterations made to its appearance, this house was unrecognizable from Google photos. Confusion over this led to pictures being taken mistakenly of 515 E. Walnut instead. The Loffin house is still unclear, as no inside photography has been found elsewhere of the interior online. The Sims 4 render is a total guess. * Old National Events Plaza interior: No photography was allowed inside. Most of the building was closed at that time. * Boonville High School interior: Not many shots of the interior were possible, due to the floors being waxed. Staff was otherwise happy to assist. However, they did supply a map of the school for reference. * Boonville Middle School interior: No photography was allowed inside. Permission would've had to have gone through the superintendent - who wasn't there, and would have wanted to get the clear from city hall. City Hall had already proven difficult to work with. * Evansville Juvenile Courtroom: Dozerfleet staff, feeling uncomfortable, skipped this. * Vanderburgh County Jail: There was no good location to get a snapshot from a distance. Some hesitation to drive right up. Google also tried to direct the van to a sheriff-only entrance, which was a definite no-go zone. After Google issues and the flow of traffic make it too impractical, the facade of this jail was skipped. * Boonville City Hall interior: Due to privacy issues and sensitivity of government functionality, no photography was allowed inside the building. A crude memory of the interior layout, however, means the first floor is someone reproducible in The Sims 4. However, the basement level was strictly off limits to tourists. * Boonville Police Department interior: This was not even attempted, given the fact that they answered directly to an uncooperative city hall that was already on high alert. * St. Vincent's Warrick Hospital: The maternity ward where Candi and her sisters were delivered was off limits to photography, citing potential risk to patient privacy. The hospital staff even went so far as to call city hall to verify the policy for tourists. City Hall, of course, said no, and said: "Oh, we've met that guy." * 1205 N. 1st St. interior: This was not even attempted. * Maple Grove Cemetery: The staff vetoed the suggestion of any photography; given the land was privately owned. They also objected to the idea of tourists showing up at random. All image frames of reference would have to be via Google. Surprise photo opportunities * The Ford Center (exterior only) * Evansville Police Department (exterior shots only) * 302 3rd St. (Couric family home) * Purge-Flare-relevant locations Locations excluded from the tour Under ideal circumstances, the tour would have included Madison (particularly the former juvenile center) and Cincinnati also. Under extremely ideal circumstances, Boulder and Yellowstone would have also been included for good measure. However, these areas were not possible to include. The city of Madison may feature a little in Inferno, but features much more prominently in Kahoopiliana and Ash Cloud. Cincinnati, likewise, features much more prominently in Ash Cloud than in Inferno. There weren't enough days available off from work for the Dozerfleet founder, nor enough money in the bank to afford gas or lodging, to cover the costs of doing the entire Centipede and Fire Saga all at once. Even then, Madison would have added an extra day and an extra $200 to the overall costs involved in making the Inferno run. Therefore, Madison was skipped entirely. All data for Madison as relates to Inferno would instead have to be extrapolated from old copies of the Madison Courier and from the Netflix series Girls Incarcerated - or from the online anecdotes of girls who were kept at the Madison Juvenile Correctional Facility from 2015-2017. So far, the by-far most useful information on this has come from former inmate Brianna Guerra - one of the inspirations behind Last Legs / Sparks of Vengeance gang member Brittany Lohmeyer. Reaction from locals Evansville While very curious about the project, most Evansville residents were very enthusiastic at the prospect of a novel that could potentially bring them more tourism. Even the courthouse was oddly comfortable with random tourism, though the juvenile courtroom was not available for photography. Otherwise, security was surprisingly relaxed. Only the Old National Events Center seemed antagonistic toward the project; and only because of the fact that a backpack was involved - which would violate their no backpacks policy. Therefore, Candi would have had to use a purse to enter incognito to the convention room. Her backpack would have resulted in her being turned away at the entrance. It's possible she stored her backpack on top of the Ford Center's roof instead. Boonville Boonville was slightly more closed-minded about the project. Even then, most locals praised the idea of the Centipede and Fire saga having a heroine from the area - and of the fact that this could produce more tourism. The only real objections to the project came from a few women at the Boonville City Hall and from the staff of the Maple Grove Cemetery - who didn't think the town could handle an influx of tourism every year due to the publicity that Ciem: Inferno alone could potentially generate. The Maple Grove staff were particularly uneasy about the increase in publicity this could generate. Their typical experience with publicity has been dealing with unreasonable locals complaining about them to the local paper regarding their maintenance schedules and methods. Out-of-town traffic from gawkers wanting to see the real-life cemetery that inspired the fictional Gerosha Cemetery? They were uncertain how they could ever handle such a thing - especially since the Gerosha Cemetery is very much a public affair and the Maple Grove more of a private one. Boonville High School was very supportive of the idea, even if its counterpart (Gerosha High School) is a dark mirror of its actual culture that demonstrates what could go wrong if the local students began to adopt San Fransisco values. They were even courteous enough to supply a map of the school's interior. Not many shots were possible for the interior, as the building's floors were being waxed. However, they permitted photography of the football field and exterior of the building from multiple angles. Boonville Middle School was far less supportive, requiring several layers of red tape to gain approval for shooting. By that time of day, everyone was too tired to follow through with trying to get those layers of approval. And it was unlikely that the flashback to Candi's battle with Don the Psycho in the locker rooms would have been met fondly. Even if the locker rooms were empty, a random stranger taking photographs of it was frowned upon. Most supportive of the project was oddly enough the Posey's Market - even though its only relevance in-story was being the location where Candi was mistaken for a Pyro Panther by Vanderburgh police outsourced due to Gerosha being overwhelmed, and where she was then subsequently arrested. The Chuckles Gas Station was curious and confused about the project, but generally in favor of the idea behind it. The only hard "no" answers to internal photography came from city hall and the St. Vincent's Hospital - for privacy reasons. Other tours Locations still legally permissible to enter and tour that were omitted from the "Grand" Tour for Inferno could become locations for other tours. The general success of this tour led to another tour event being held in late September of the same year: A Very Anarteq Tour of the Soo. Future tours The following tours are being considered for future years for story development and research. For tours related to Anarteq, see the future tours list for A Very Anarteq Tour of the Soo. * The St. Louis Extirpation Tour would be a trip to St. Louis, to map out locations for Extirpon. * The Pam Marcones Tour would be a trip to the Philippines and to Shanghai, to track the events in Extirpon 2. This would by far be the most expensive trip to plan. * Pilltar: The Grand Tour would be a trip to Ankeny and Des Moines, for Pilltar and Pilltar 2. * The Nathaniel Hawthorne Tie-In Tour would be a trip to Massachusetts to every location relevant to the Gray Champion trilogy. Jonesboro in Arkansas, however, would be saved for the Swappernetters Flash Tour (see below.) * Ciem: Ash Cloud: The Grand Tour would cover primarily Cincinnati, and all locations where Candi would have done something to either rescue civilians or else try to get the Heart of Pele away from Korsicht. Madison would feature in this tour along with Milton for the events in Kahoopiliana. * Ciem: Caldera: The Grand Tour would cover Candi's adventures in Boulder, along with a tour of Yellowstone as pertains to its caldera. It would also discuss Tanya Woven's daring effort to help herself and the Last Legs escape Hebbleskin capture using a borrowed Carbonica Ciem suit that was on loan to Tanya from Candi herself. If requested, Tanya's real-life inspiration Taryn Twine could possibly even receive a real-life Carbonica jacket. * The Swappernetters Flash Tour would be a trip to Little Rock and Jonesboro in Arkansas, to retrace the steps of the life and times of Tabitha Pang and her friends. Other tours would be proposed as the means and necessity came about. See also * Candi McArthur (Cataclysmic Gerosha) * Ciem: Inferno * Donte McArthur (Cataclysmic Gerosha) * Amirah Rose (Cataclysmic Gerosha) Category:Projects from 2019 Category:Completed projects Category:Events